A laboratory experiment is described for beginning, nonmajor chemistry students, which allows students to examine the phenomena of fluorescence and chemiluminescence, as well as gain experience in basic organic synthesis. Students synthesize fluorescein and bis(2,4,6-trichlorophenyl) oxalate (TCPO) to explore fluorescence and chemiluminescence by…

A series of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets were developed to simulate the process of separation optimization under isocratic and simple gradient conditions. The optimization procedure is performed in a stepwise fashion using simple macros for an automatic application of this approach. The proposed optimization approach involves modeling of the peak…

This letter comments on the paper "Analysis of Citric Acid in Beverages: Use of an Indicator Displacement Assay" ["J. Chem. Educ." 2010, 87 (8), 832-835 (EJ918557)]. Discrepancies in figures and host:indicator complex behavior are discussed and an alternative experimental protocol presented.

An organic chemistry experiment is described that is based on recent research to elucidate a novel cation-pi interaction between tetraalkammonium cations and propargyl hydrazines. This nonbonded interaction is a key component of the mechanism of ammonium-catalyzed intramolecular cycloaddition of nitrogen to the terminal carbon of a C-C triple bond…

A straightforward synthesis of 2-phenylimidazo[1,2-a]pyridine is described. The reaction is designed to demonstrate to students the preparation of a bridged N-heterocycle, in which the heteroatom occupies a bridgehead position. The product is obtained in moderate to high yield and is highly crystalline. The compound can be purified either by…

Automatic assessment and evaluation of team performance during collaborative tasks is key to the research on learning analytics and computer-supported cooperative work. There is growing interest in the use of gaze-oriented cues for evaluating the collaboration and cooperativeness of teams. However, collecting gaze data using eye-trackers is not…

This work presents the results of two-year-long pedagogical research, the aim of which was to demonstrate the applicability of the usage of a new strategy in education--Integrated e-Learning (INTe-L)--through its introduction into project-based physics teaching in Slovakia. The INTe-L strategy is built around the role of experiments and…

The rising costs of college tuition, housing, and textbooks can be a barrier to many who seek a certification or degree in a health profession field. Affordable open educational resources (AOER) are an attractive alternative to expensive course materials. The Health Sciences Department at Weber State University created a comprehensive, two…

Enzymatic activity is at the core of biological reactions. Understanding them and the chemical and environmental factors that affect reaction rates is critical for biology students. The laboratory experiment proposed here investigated these concepts, while requiring students to document, graph data, analyse results using statistics, and…

The laboratory instruction sheet (sometimes called a laboratory manual), together with the equipment used by students, is an essential resource for laboratory work. It has a direct influence over all the interactions that can occur in the laboratory activity, of which student-equipment is the only common synchronous interaction in both…

In the course of PISA and TIMSS a lot of out-of-school lab days have been established; as non-formal extracurricular learning environments they shall provide an efficient addition to formal learning at school. The "ELKE" project is a non-formal extracurricular learning lab that aims at linking curricular content and competence-centred…

This research presents the investigation of physics students' and physics faculty members' professional development and a design methodology via which we could best support them in their professional development. In particular, the first part of this dissertation will focus on undergraduate upper-division physics students' conceptual learning and…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of Design Based Science Education (DBSE) applications on the perceptions of science teacher candidates about engineering education and engineers. In the quantitative part of the study in which the mixed method was involved, a semi-experimental design with single group pre-test post-test was…

The new approach to teaching science presented by the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) warrants training high-quality science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teachers to prepare the future STEM workforce. We share the implementation of an energy lesson using a nanoscience approach, well-aligned with the NGSS vision, in a…

A low-cost and simple setup to measure the densities of liquids is introduced herein. The results and reliability of this setup were evaluated for pure liquids, water-ethanol binary mixtures, and aqueous NaCl solutions. The constructed densitometer provided density values with acceptable relative errors (less than ±3.0%), which were compared to…